An analysis of Eridan Ampora’s speech and language.
This essay was written by CMa Overdensity. Started on October 12th, 2023, and published @ cmaoverdensity.neocities.org on November 6th, 2023. Last edited June 6th, 2025.
Homestuck, and the image above © VIZ Media (specific credit when necessary). This work is a nonprofit educational essay that complies with Subject Matter and Scope of Copyright, 17 U.S.C. § 107 (Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use).
Trolls in Homestuck have a custom called a “typing quirk” where they write their messages, both on-paper and digitally. A typing quirk can be more than substitutions and puns - it reflects a troll’s personality and their speech patterns. Eridan Ampora, the lonely and violent violetblood prince, is described in-text to have an accent. What are the peculiarities of Eridan’s speech?
This analysis considers all of Homestuck and none of Beyond Canon (Epilogues, Homestuck 2, Pesterquest). Erisolsprite, as a fusion of Eridan and Sollux, will be counted for Eridan’s speech in the instance where it can be argued that Eridan is speaking. IPA conventions, such as virgules for phonemes, square brackets for phones, and angle brackets for orthography will be used, along with IPA symbols to describe sounds.
Homestuck has no voice acting, so this section is speculative. However, a troll’s quirk reflects their speech. Sollux, for example, has a lisp,1 which is represented by <2> for <s>, meant to be read as [θ] for [s]. Eridan has a “vvery weird and sort of wwavvy soundin accent”, mentioned both in-text and in Andrew Hussie’s commentary.2 The most obvious feature of Eridan’s phonology is the duplication of <v> and <w>. People have interpreted this in multiple ways.
Some believe that <vv> and <ww> describe a stutter, either that Eridan is experiencing a part-word repetition ([v\v] or [w\w]) or prolongation ([v:] or [w:]). Both could make his speech sound “wavy”. Both of these types of stuttering are considered stuttering-type disfluencies,3 and they both get worse when surprised,4 which is common in stuttering.3
I do not believe this describes a stutter, as the text blatantly says Sollux has a “lisp”,1 whereas Eridan is described as having an “accent”, both in-narration,2 by other characters,5 and by himself.6 Eridan also displays no other features of stuttering, such as blocks (abnormal pauses) or tension while stuttering, the latter of which could be explained by his interactions being mostly through text, whereas the former would likely be textually represented. While anxiety regarding stuttering is a common trait of people who stutter, you don’t need anxiety to be diagnosed. However, for someone as both insecure and image-conscious as Eridan, I would expect him to have a high level of anxiety around speaking. There is only one instance where Eridan could be insecure over his speech, and that is when he calls his speech “weird”, though given the context of him supplicating to Feferi, he might not genuinely believe his accent is weird. Fluency disorders such as stuttering also run in families, and given that Dualscar and Cronus are both forms of, parents to, and sons of Eridan, that they would also display stuttering behaviour, but neither do.3 You could argue that, given as most of Homestuck is done through an in-universe messaging program, that Eridan wouldn’t have the same communicative pressures that would lead him to stutter. However, Eridan’s stuttering does not worsen in-person, even under stress, as shown in any dialogue on the meteor.7
As for non-stuttering interpretations, Eridan’s <vv> could be read as [w], fitting with his Roman motifs. As a consonant, <v> in Latin - specifically Reconstructed Latin, the Latin spoken by Romans - would be articulated as [w]. [v:] for <vv> and [w:] for <ww> could also fit this interpretation, as Latin differentiates some words by both consonant and vowel length.8
Other descriptions of how <vv> and <ww> are articulated are:9
Eridan’s accent involves g-dropping, when the ing on the ends of certain words becomes in’ (phonetically: [ɪn] for [ɪŋ].10 His speech follows g-dropping stress rules as well: he never says <thin> for thing,11 but does say <anythin> for anything,12 as g-dropping only occurs on the weak syllable in multisyllabic words.13 He g-drops with plurals too, where <ings” become <ins>.14 Despite Eridan not having g-dropped fifteen times,15 when he intentionally stops using his accent, he continues to g-drop.16
Outside of g-dropping, Eridan is inconsistent with what sounds he drops, replaces, or elides. <a> for <of> occurs only ten times, <an> for <a> five times, and <an> for <and> <and> two times.16 Elisions such as <kinda> for kind of, <gotta> for got to, <gonna> for going to, <wanna> for want to, <dunno> for don’t know, and <em> for them are infrequent and create no patterns.17
Beyond this, what Eridan’s accent is is unknown. Whatever <vv> and <ww> represent, they do not reflect any Earthling accent. Slipping back into speculation, given Eridan’s use of British slang (see Semantics), many believe he uses Received Pronunciation. However, Received Pronunciation does not g-drop.13 RP also may drop Hs, though not to the frequency of any London accent, which Eridan does not have.18 My proposal is Estuary English, which sits between the two and is closer in status to Received Pronunciation.19 As Eridan has pirate theming, a “pirate accent,” not a real accent but based on West Country English,20 could also be a possibility.
Eridan often uses compound words: likely stemming from highblood naming conventions,1 and which occur eleven times,2 nine if excluding Eridan giving Rose an explicitly noble title.3 These compound words are often used as insults, such as the aforementioned noble title of “fakemage pinkscarf”.3 When not used as insults, compound words are archaic, such as “somesuch”4 and “forwardsuch”.5
Other instances of non-standard morphology are “nonfakeness” and the erroneous plurals of “magics” and “sciences”, all used emphatically.6
Hussie describes Eridan’s vocabulary as a “baffling mashup of pirate speak, soccer hooliganism, and the fuckboy joker always sliding into your DMs”1. His word choices are contradictory, both vulgar and refined, archaic and modern.
All uses of fuck, shit, and damn were counted in Eridan’s total dialogue to determine the frequency of his swearing. This number was compared to numbers derived from Karkat, Kanaya, Gamzee, Cronus, and Vriska’s dialogue. For every one thousand words Eridan speaks, eighteen of them are these three words. This is more than every other character studied except Gamzee, as Gamzee’s frequent use of fuck in words like motherfuck bumped his count to fifty six out of one thousand. Excluding Gamzee, Eridan is one standard deviation away from the mean. His swearing frequency is comparable to Dave (15/1000) and Karkat (16/1000). Eridan, while obviously capable of and willing to swear, also substitutes his swears. This is most often flipping for fucking,2 but can also be crap for shit3 and stinking for fucking.4 However, as Eridan has used flipping immediately after saying fuck before5, there is no pattern as to when he will substitute swears.
Eridan uses Latin-derived words, such as conniving, consort, adversary, vulgar, treacherous, bellicose, inquire, and repartee.6 He also uses archaic words, as evidenced by using Google Books Ngram Viewer. The words betwixt, methinks, poppycock, somesuch, forwardsuch, connoiter, connive, consort (as a verb), and repartee were chosen and input into Google Books Ngram Viewer to view their historical frequency. Each word’s peak usage was noted and averaged, along with their start and end dates. These selected words have an average peak in 1784, with a start date of 1626 and end date of 1941. For the words individually, the most common century for words to peak in use were the 1600s, followed by the 1700s.7
Beyond vulgarity and archaic words, Eridan uses British slang, such as rubbish8 and bloody.9 Eridan often uses both of the aforementioned words, as well as upright (as an intensifier), poppycock, dirtscraper (and derivatives), and brinesucker.10 Erisolsprite continues Eridan’s use of bloody, using it more often than Eridan.11
When Eridan writes okay, it is always written as <ok>.12 He tends to say oh god when surprised, afraid, or regretful.13 He has written out his actions, such as saying sigh, twice.14 Eridan prefers uh as a filler word, but has used eh once.15 Eridan has used an emphatic so four times.16
Andrew Hussie describes Eridan’s speech as having a “run on cadence”,1 evidenced in the text by his consistent use of leaving out all punctuation except for one use of quotations.2 Eridan often merges smaller sentences and fragments into one line, such as this line3 which could be rewritten as “So help me out. Tell her to talk to me. I think she blocked me. You got to.” and this line4 as “Yeah it does. It's important. Sorry, but the fate of the race and purity of the bloodline is important. Excuse me for being concerned.”
Conjunctions are used in place of commas, and are common when anxious or rambling.5 To break apart his sentences, he uses line breaks, which can also be used emphatically, to convey surprise or anxiety, or to add information.6 Eridan may prematurely end sentences when anxious or confused.7
Eridan uses the construction of “[adjective] [intensifier] [noun]” thirty-six times.8 He adds additional adjectives when monologuing, being insulting, or upset;9 and the intensifier is often a swear or swear substitution.10 Eridan has inverted the usual order of nouns and adjectives twice11 and has used a double negative once.12 He consistently uses “s/he and me” over “s/he and I”.13
Eridan’s speaking style is both dramatic and insulting, commented on by Feferi,1 soliloquising to convince others to do what he wants2 and insulting when that fails.3 Eridan’s one use of quotations was to disparage Rose’s magical abilities.4 He is not fond of using please sincerely, using it when frustrated or desperate.5 However, Eridan also insults himself.6 Eridan swears more when angry,7 and uses all caps to emphasise words or to shout.8 He does not use emoticons, and laughs with <ha>.9
Eridan is the most verbally friendly towards Feferi. He thanks her for comforting him and wishes he could’ve thanked her sooner for helping him into the Medium.10 He gives her compliments, uses please genuinely towards her, apologises to her, expresses worry about her, and drops his accent on her request.11 He demonstrates an understanding of Feferi’s own typing quirk (and by proxy, her interests) by using fish puns as a means of regaining her favour.12 However, Eridan does express annoyance at her use of fish puns, both in general and while being broken up with.13 Eridan, like Feferi, uses glub in dialogue, though only with or referring to her, using it as a greeting, an expression of agitation, an expression of sadness, and in place of speak.14
While Eridan is more friendly towards Feferi, his politeness towards her can also be passive-aggressive.15 He self-depreciates more around her, demeaning his feelings and himself.16 This is likely an attempt to make her pity him. When confessing his feelings, he is hesitant, splitting his messages up prematurely to the extent that they become single words.17 He also understates his feelings using hedging phrasing such as “a bit” and “kinda”.18
Outside of Feferi, he has thanked Kanaya for making his wand, offering to teach her sarcasm in return.19 He is also kind to Karkat, empathising with his upset and offering to let him talk about it.20
Eridan shortens the name of every troll he mentions, giving single-syllable, three to four word nicknames based on the first syllable of their name, such as kar, fef, vris, ter, and gam.21 The troll whose name he uses in full is Karkat’s, whose name is also the name he says the most in total.22 He does not shorten the kids’ names, based on how he uses Jade’s full name.23
Eridan’s speech is characterised by the following:
you could either play along as our auspistice and do a little mediating like you wwere fuckin hatched to / or wwatch she and me devvolvve into fuckin full fledged kismesisses the kind like you dont get once in ten thousand swweeps / there wwould be rainboww rivvers runnin through star systems and all nebulizin like liquid firewworks / it wwill be beautiful and heartbreaking all at once1
ok fine / i apologize for losin my shit over this i was just caught off guard is all / but maybe its a good thing really / actually i might a been proposin the same thing to be honest /
yeah / fef have you thought about / since you dont wanna be pale with me no more / the possibility a some other type of arrangement with me / i mean / somethin a bit more / kinda reddish / like / brighter red2
i had a misconclusion about that so my fault / obvviously you got rich blood so maybe when you crash landed you wwerent recognized for it by wwhatevver vvehicle upholds the class structure in human society / must of been fuckin brutal raisin up a commonblood wwhen you knew you wwere better than evverybody and its probably got you all messed up inside but maybe theres hope for you / see i got a lot a experience bein nobility so ill let you knoww if you got a shot in hell at cuttin it pinkscarf3
at this point i find all her adorable black pixie dabblins to be prime kiddie playtime shit / all of her FRAUDULENT MAGICS cannot come close to posin threat to my mastery ovver the TRUEST SCIENCES / an wwith my empiricists wwand i servve as the righteous hope that wwill incinerate delusion and the deluded alike / my holy fire is the wwhite fury bled from the wwrath-wweary eyes of fifty thousand nonfictional angels / and wwhen theyre finished wweepin they wwill boww before their prince4
Eridan, Dave, and Caliborn have been compared to each other by Hussie,5 and thus, their language may be similar. At a glance, all three lack capitalisation and punctuation, as well as having tendencies to ramble. Only so much could have been covered given limited time and resources.